Joe Biden accused of hiring staff with links to 'anti-Asian' institutions despite stand on anti-Asian racism
President Joe Biden denounced the shooting incidents at a number of spas in Atlanta that saw six Asian American losing their lives and pledged support for a bill addressing hate crimes against the community. However, despite the president’s strong words against criminal offenses against the Asian Americans and his deputy being an Asian-American herself, his administration has been accused of turning a blind eye to the country’s top universities’ alleged discrimination against Asian Americans.
While America’s Ivy League institutions have been accused of discriminating against qualified Asian-American applicants on the basis of race, it has also been reported that President Biden has filled his administration with people who are linked with those institutions. According to an analytical report published by Politico earlier in May, more than 40 percent of senior and mid-level staffers in the Biden-occupied White House have degrees from Ivy League universities and institutions.
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The Washington Free Beacon said in a report: “Nearly 20 percent of White House staffers, including Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, have degrees from Harvard. The elite university is embroiled in ongoing litigation over its controversial admissions practices, which the plaintiffs allege are unjustly biased against Asian-American applicants. Some analysts expect the lawsuit, Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, will ultimately be settled by the Supreme Court.”
The administration has 29 people who have graduated from Yale, another Ivy League institute, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and National Security Council Chief of Staff Yohannes Abraham. In 2020, the justice department sued Yale alleging that it rejected many qualified Asian-American applicants because of race. The move came after many Asian-American organizations filed a complaint with the departments of justice and education against the New Haven Ivy. But soon after Biden took office in January, the justice department withdrew the lawsuit even as hate crime against Asians saw a steep surge. A coalition of Asian-American outfits have appealed to the Biden administration to reinstate the lawsuit. A number of Asian-American advocates and lawmakers also spoke out against the Biden administration’s dropping the lawsuit, saying the commander-in-chief’s actions fell short of his words.
Biden administration has more Ivy Leaguers than Trump White House
While 41 percent of senior- or mid-level staffers of the Biden White House (82 out of 201 aides) have Ivy League degrees, the figure was much less (21 percent) in times of his predecessor Donald Trump who trusted people who were close to him personally.
The Democratic Party has also been accused of ignoring the challenge that Asian Americans are facing in the US. Last month, Senate Democrats blocked an amendment to the new Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act that would have denied universities that discriminate against Asian Americans federal funding. GOP senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and John Kennedy (Louisiana), who co-sponsored the unsuccessful amendment, blasted the Democrats saying they were only “paying lip service to fighting discrimination against Asian Americans”.
Sen. Ted Cruz: The DOJ "was suing Yale for its discrimination against Asian Americans until the Biden admin dismissed that lawsuit. My amd. would prohibit [higher ed] from receiving any federal $$ if they have a policy or engage in discrimination against Asian Americans." pic.twitter.com/b6APiQyVqI
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 22, 2021
Even media outlets that are known to be trusted by the Democrats have been accused of a biased coverage of Andrew Yang, a member of the blue party itself who is running for the New York mayoral post. The network was also accused of giving Yang, an Asian-American, a less-than-satisfactory coverage during his unsuccessful presidential run last year. Even Yang criticized the network in November 2019 saying it tried to suppress and minimize his campaign because there were certain other candidates that they might favor.